Taiwan’s E100k boost for basketball
MBABANE – The Basketball Association of Eswatini (BASE) is set to receive a lifeline. The latest reports were that Taiwan Ambassador to Eswatini, His Excellence Jeremy Liang has announced that the Embassy would inject E100 000 towards supporting a youth basketball tournament in the kingdom.
This was revealed by Prime Minister (PM) Russell Dlamini through his official social media page yesterday. The PM visited the home court of the Tainan TSG GhostHawks, a professional basketball team based in Tainan City, where he received their basketball kit to wear and showed off some of his skills.
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“I am pleased to share that the team agreed to draw up a framework to support the development of basketball in Eswatini,” Dlamini said.
The PM went on to express gratitude to Taiwan for the boost. “We are grateful for such support, once again underlining the strong ties between our two Nations. His Majesty’s government believes in the power of sport to unite our nation and bring sustainable jobs to our people, particularly the youth and we will continue to invest and pursue partnerships for the development of sport in Eswatini,” he added.
Meanwhile, BASE Vice President (VP) Phumelele Motsa said they were still to engage the National Sports Council regarding same. The PM is currently in Taiwan on a work visit, which entered its fourth day on Thursday, having left five days ago after receiving an invitation from the Government of Taiwan. The premier has visited The Taipei Medical University, where he learnt about their programmes.
“The university expressed interest in working with Eswatini to help us fight chronic diseases such as diabetes and cancer,” he said.
He then proceeded to tour the Taoyuan Refinery Plant in Taoyuan City. As Eswatini embarks on constructing its first ever Strategic Oil Reserve the PM shared that it is important to learn how partners approached similar projects, particularly with regard to environmental protection and maintenance issues.